15 Responses to “Show #308: And the Trades Begin”

Chris Johnson, Julio Teheran to the Mariners for Kyle Seager and a lower level prospect. I love Teheran, but with the farm system being restocked with pitchers is be okay letting him go. Especially if it means throwing Chris Johnson in. Seager would be a huge boost in the lineup both now and in the future. We’d have him for 6 years.

Who said Shelby Miller had been pitching poorly? He’s been far and away our most consistent dominant pitcher. He has the fourth lowest ERA in the league. It’s just we don’t score. You can’t fault him for that. The ONLY way someone could try to say he’s been anything other than elite is pointing to some (indecipherable) sabermetric figure FIP, which I’m highly skeptical about anyway. Were he on the market today, he’d be undoubtedly the most valuable trade piece around considering his age, controllability and his arm. The reasons the Cardinals traded him have all mostly been resolved due to his discovery of a sinking fastball and cutter that he learned toward the end of the season last year. I had questions after his initial spring training outing, but since then he’s been exceptional except for maybe two starts. He’s what we hope other prospects develop into. I’m less sold on Banuelos now, but it’s still early. We do need power bats…not really any in farm system. Best is Dustin Peterson & maybe Conner Lien. A couple fair hitters, but nothing remarkable. Don’t know how they plan on filling that need effectively by 2017.

George – I’m pretty sure it was Ham who was talking about Miller. It was in reference to the stretch in late June, early July where over the course of three games he’d given up 4 ER and 5 ER. Granted, sandwiched around a scoreless outing.

The 3b Position has to be the weakest its ever been in the history of baseball right now. Maybe having Olivera over the next 4-5 years at the amazing price he comes with is worth a young lefty pitcher with potential. We needed some type of offensive upgrade anyway. His stats look amazing.

Paco Rodriguez for Avilan seems like a good trade. Paco has good stats.

Jim Johnson for Bird and the draft pick seems ok.

My only problem is adding Peraza in the deal. We should have made the Dodgers add at least one of their top 10 prospects in the deal or taken on Chris Johnson’s contract.

Walker – to me it’s all about Olivera needs to be as advertised and what becomes of Wood. Olivera, by all accounts, is a no-brainer upgrade over Peraza. But if Wood goes on to be a sub 3.50 ERA pitcher for the next 8 – 10 years it’s not in the Braves favor.

But, right now, Olivera, for ~$6.5MM/yr for the next 6 years looks like a bargain.

Yeah. I think they and the industry at large are concerned about Wood and Peraza going forward. We all know about Wood’s crazy delivery and past TJ surgery. It seems there is legit concern about Peraza’s inability to draw walks and hit for very much power. I think the rest of the industry knows about these weaknesses and concerns so it’s impossible for the Braves to sell high, based on past performance and past reputation.

While Olivera is a little older than the Braves would probably prefer and has some injury question marks, there is little doubt he’ll be at least a solid big leaguer.

Does Peraza have to have power? I guess I don’t get that knock against him. I am well aware the Braves need more punch, but to throw doubt on Peraza because his lack of power seems strange to me. He’s a lanky little infielder. We have a right fielder with 1 home run. That is a bigger problem to me than Peraza.

And Wood had TJ in high school. Has he had any problems since then? Seems like Olivera has a bigger question mark with his elbow than Wood does. If Olivera is lost for a season to elbow surgery, this deal gets much worse.

I get ALL the reasons I have been told why this trade makes sense. And part of me believes it. But it seems like we should have gotten a little more. I’m with Walker on that aspect.

Sure. I get that part. But I keep reading about people referencing his lack of power as a knock. Maybe they are just making a point and how it works against him given the Braves glaring need for more power in their lineup.